Argosy All-Story Weekly, July 7, 1928 — page 143: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

HEARTBREAK TRAIL. ‘Look! They’re starting to move down the hill,” said Reuel, pointing to the troops. ‘‘ There’s a cannon trained this way, and we might be more com- fortable down below.” At eleven o’clock Marshal Donald- son sent Deputy Marshal Fain into the town with writs for Judge Smith and G. W. Dietzler, both charged with treason, in that they had resisted the authority of the border rufhans com- missioned in the fall by Governor Shannon as enforcers of law and order. The two citizens yielded to arrest peaceably, and Marshal Donaldson formally dismissed the posse of seven hundred and fifty, thanking them for their efficient service, and turning them over to the sheriff of the county, Mr. Samuel Jones. Jones, shot down in the streets of Lawrence by a personal enemy, had been reported dying or dead from time to time, and his appearance before the mighty posse came as something akin to a miraculous resurrection. He sat on his horse with dashing spirit and made a picture of hearty and robust health, and the lusty cheering resounded from the Oread hill to the center of the town. Under the sheriff’s orders the long- planned sacking of the town began. He was armed with writs clumsily exe- cuted by the grand jury, declaring the large and new Free State Hotel to be an arsenal for contraband munitions of war, and the two local newspapers dangerous breeders of sedition and lo- cal strife. Jones dined heartily and well at the Free State Hotel, graciously permitted Mr. Eldridge, the proprietor, to re- move some of his furniture and per- sonal effects, and then gave the final commands for the destruction of the building. Cannon were placed in the street and trained on the hotel. Senator Atchison claimed the honor of direct- ing the first shot, and fired it far over the roof. Better gunners trained the 283 pieces and planted a number of solid shot in the walls of the structure. The shot served only as a bizarre form of mural decoration; the hotel refused to fall. The sheriff grew im- patient, and time was saved by the pil- ing of rubbish in the rooms and the firing of the great pyre thus formed. While the hotel burned, the newspa- per plants were sacked and destroyed, presses, type, paper, and all property of the owners being burned or sunk in the river. The doughty hero of the unusual celebration, Sheriff Jones, addressed his posse as the buildings burned. “Gentlemen,” he said, ‘ this is the happiest day of my life, I assure you. I determined to make the fanatics bow before me in the dust, and kiss the ter- ritorial laws. I have done it, by Heaven! I have done it!” As the conflagration burned out, he dismissed the posse, thanking them for their bravery and loyal support. The spectacle seemed to be at an end, but the formal dismissal was the signal for the sacking of the town. No man of Lawrence raised a hand in resistance, but the seven hundred and fifty heroes of the day broke ranks and turned the quiet streets to a bed- lam of disorder. Stores and dwellings were broken into, raided, and plundered. Drunken ruffians paraded the streets dressed grotesquely in feminine apparel, shoot- ing the windows from the buildings and singing lewd songs. Singing the popular song, “ Mollie Darling,” a group of them leveled rifles at some ladies who had taken refuge on College Hill, and fired a volley. The bullets flew among the women, but the marksmanship was poor, and when the rifles were aimed again, the human targets had fled. Smoke rose from several quarters of the town, and the marauders, burning and pillaging, began to spread toward the outskirts, seeking further loot and entertainment. Gomichbooks (F@)